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Rising five-star point guard getting close to Louisville coaches

Five-star sophomore Dennis Smith Jr. of Fayetteville, N.C., who has emerged this spring as possibly the best point guard in the 2016 class, said over the weekend that the University of Louisville basketball team has begun to show considerable recruiting interest in him, and he is reciprocating it.

FISHERS, Ind. — Five-star sophomore Dennis Smith Jr. of Fayetteville, N.C., who has emerged this spring as possibly the best point guard in the 2016 class, said over the weekend that the University of Louisville basketball team has begun to show considerable recruiting interest in him, and he is reciprocating it.

The 6-foot-2, 173-pound Smith, the nation's No. 16 player in 2016 by Rivals.com, said at the Adidas Gauntlet session in Fishers that U of L, Duke, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan and VCU are the teams most actively recruiting him now, adding that VCU is "probably heavier on me than anybody else."

Smith, who had 25 points and 11 assists in his last game of the weekend for the Team Loaded North Carolina club, has offers from VCU, Kansas, North Carolina State, Charlotte and Wake Forest.

Smith started hearing from U of L, which has not made an offer, about two weeks ago after the Cardinals hired assistant coach Kenny Johnson. U of L's coaches watched him at the Adidas event in Dallas last month, when he averaged 19.6 points and event highs in assists (7.4) and steals (3.6).

Smith spoke on the phone last week with head coach Rick Pitino.

"I think an offer is coming soon," Smith said. "I'll have one before the summer's over."

Johnson was not strongly recruiting Smith while he was on the staff at Indiana, but the coach told Smith he would have begun to had he not been hired by the Cards.

Now they're building a good relationship. Smith said Johnson and Pitino are taking time getting to know him and haven't even discussed basketball so far.

"I can tell that if I went there, it'll be more like a family than just playing basketball," Smith.

Even though U of L's coaches haven't spoken in depth with Smith about their basketball system, they did say they think he would be a good fit for U of L because "they like guards that play tough."

"They're real scrappy guards," he said. "They play tough. They get the job done. I like their style of play, and I think I could follow behind them if I were to go there."

He said having the Hall of Famer Pitino recruiting him "is a great feeling."

"He's a great coach and has a great program, of course, and produces great guards," Smith said.

Although he's excited for all his new recruiting interest, Dennis Smith said he has "nobody … above anybody right now" and won't even make a serious list of colleges until late in his junior year. He plans to let the next several months play out and see how many teams gets involved.

The University of Kentucky is not recruiting Smith, but he said he's interested in the Wildcats.

"They produce great guards like everybody else," Smith said. "John Wall and Eric Bledsoe, those are two names. I definitely want to hear from Kentucky."

Smith's recruitment has taken off since a sophomore year at Trinity Christian High School in which he averaged 17.9 points, 9.3 assists and 6.9 rebounds per game.

"Obviously I grew and got stronger," said Smith, who tries to play like Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers. "I didn't really change my game. I'm just getting noticed now. I'm playing in the right situations."